Michael J. Fox’s famous friends turn out for fundraiser

A host of famous faces turned out to help Michael J. Fox raise awareness of Parkinson’s disease at his foundation’s annual gala in New York City over the weekend.

The star, who has been battling the debilitating condition since the early 1990s, was joined by the likes of Blake Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, Julianna Margulies, Seth Meyers and Tina Fey at the glitzy bash at Manhattan’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel on Saturday night.

Fox joined Coldplay star Chris Martin on guitar for a musical performance, while Reynolds, whose own father is battling Parkinson’s, admitted he was impressed by the work of The Michael J. Fox Foundation, saying, “You meet the people who work with this foundation, and so many of them have absolutely no affiliation with the disease whatsoever other than their job, and they were brought to it by a common denominator, which is Michael, and he’s so inspiring and you just see the people that work with this foundation and how tirelessly they give everything they have to it and you start to forget that you’re only here because someone you care about has Parkinson’s. I was really blown away by the whole operation.”

Marguiles insisted she turned out at the event to help raise cash for the cause, saying, “When you raise awareness, you raise money. I mean, it’s the brutal truth.”

Fellow guest, actor John Slattery, added to The Hollywood Reporter, “We’re trying to find a cure. Research is expensive, and the more people know about it, that’s everything, so that’s what he’s doing.”